Women’s Wrestling on TV in 2024

I started this project back in 2021, and I kept at it for another year.  To catch anyone up who needs it, here’s what I’m counting:

• Number of matches per week (I do not count intergender and mixed tag matches as women’s matches, but do count then for total ring time and participation)
• Number of women wrestling per week
• Total ring time per week
• Average match time
• Number of main events this year (main events are matches that close the show, not just the last match on the show)
• Number of women with at least 10 matches on one show (RAW, Smackdown, etc)

A few more things:

• The grade I give each show is for the entire year, so a few really good or really bad weeks don’t cancel everything else out. It is not uncommon for any of these shows to put on a few great weeks sandwiched in between weeks or even months of mediocrity. I believe that given the size of women’s rosters today every company should be able to use them year round, and not just in spurts.
• I have a new category, ‘Weekly Wins’. A weekly win is simply which show has the best combinations of matches, number of women wrestling, and ring time in a week.
• This is not a commentary on any of the wrestlers, or the subjective quality of their matches or segments, it’s on the effort from the creative/booking teams. No matter what I think of any wrestler, if they’re on a company’s roster then the booker should find a way to use them. My opinion on how a match or segment was is entirely separate from whether or not women are being given enough time on TV. (Bad men’s segments or matches never result in the men’s time as a whole getting cut)

Monday Night RAW (3 hours)

• Matches per week: 1.875, up from 1.76 for 2023
• Women wrestling per week: 6.65, up from 5.14 for 2023
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 15:08, up from 12:29 for 2023
• Average Match Time: 7:31, up from 7:04 for 2023
• Number of matches over 10 minutes: 24 (projected), up from 22 for 2023
• Number of matches under 4 minutes: 29 (projected), down from 35 for 2023
• Main Events: 3
• Women with 10 matches: 12 (16 projected for 53 weeks), up from 11 for 2023
• Weekly wins: 9

The three hour RAW got off to a really good start this year. For the first 12 weeks they averaged 2 matches, 7.75 women wrestling, and 16 minutes of total ring time.  Key to that was having 3 of the top 4 women – Becky Lynch, Nia Jax, and Liv Morgan – fight each other a few times.  The women’s tag team champs were also on more during that time, as both Kayden Carter & Katana Chance and the Kabuki Warriors got defenses, and there were some contenders matches to set up a challenger for a March 11 title shot at the latter. But then things got chaotic.

From March 25 to April 29 the average total ring time was under nine minutes, with seven out of the ten matches over that time running under four minutes. Then the Queen of the Ring matches shot the numbers through the roof for three weeks to 2.67 matches and 27 minutes of ring time per week. But then in the remaining 19 weeks things fell down to 1.68 matches, 5.73 women wrestling and 12 and a half minutes of total women’s match time, which is just yikes for a 3 hour show with that size of a roster.

Final Grade: C+

The 3 hour RAW struggled all year to maintain any level of consistency.  The averages were higher than last year but beneath the surface there was a lot found to be lacking. The topline of the division was represented great in the ring early on, but everything underneath was inconsistent and often just bad. Prior to WrestleMania they averaged 7.5 women wrestling per Monday, but afterwards it fell to 6.2 and the total women’s match time went from 14:50 to 13:44. After June, there was a shift in how the women’s roster was being used.  With Rhea Ripley back and feuding with Morgan, most of the remaining roster became intertwined with each other, which led to less of everything per week (1.57 matches with 5.64 women wrestling and almost 12 minutes of women’s match time over the last 14 weeks).  

The inconsistency was glaring.  While the averages went up across the board from 2023 it turns out that they were skewed upward by 8 big weeks (the Queen of the Ring Tournament plus five other weeks that were clear anomalies) while the other 32 averaged 1.7 matches, 6.1 women wrestling, and eleven and a half minutes of women’s match time.  The loss of Rhea Ripley to injury and Becky Lynch to hiatus made things more difficult but there were self imposed wounds like sending Nia Jax to Smackdown while keeping Bianca Belair and Jade Cargill over there instead of sending them to Monday.  In simpler terms, the improved 3 hour RAW in 2024 was largely a mirage fluffed up by a tournament and a couple of battle royals but overall it was mid, as the kids say. 

RAW (2 hour)

• Matches per week: 1.38
• Women wrestling per week: 5.92
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 12:40
• Average Match Time: 8:36
• Main Events: 4
• Weekly wins: 2

The 2 hour RAW was a tale of extremes.  One week they had 2 matches that totaled 18 minutes, 8 women wrestling and a TV main event.  Then the next two weeks they had 1 match each episode lasting an average of 7 minutes. In the sixth week they had two matches, 10 women wrestling and a main event then in week seven they had no women’s matches at all, just a mixed tag match.  For 10 weeks there was a constant fluctuation between great and putrid, then the bottom fell out in the last 3 weeks to the tune of 1.33 matches and 3.33 women wrestling per week.  In a lot of ways it was a microcosm of the year as a whole and not much different from the 3 hour RAW (they even had a battle to royal one week to make everything look better!). One thing they did do better was have more main events. Over the first 10 weeks they got in 4 of them, more than the 3 hour RAW did in 40.

Grade for 2024: C

Again the word is inconsistency.  The two hour RAW looked like one week they didn’t care then the next week they set out to make up for it.  The frequency of main events is an obvious high spot but everything else was really bad or really good week to week, and the really good weeks were ones were Smackdown people crossed over to help build for Crown Jewel or for the Wargames at Survivor Series.

Smackdown

• Matches per week: 1.46, up from 1.12 for 2023
• Women wrestling per week: 3.98, up from 3.55 for 2023
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 11:52, up from 8:29 for 2023
• Average match time: 8:07, up from 7:35 for 2023
• Number of matches over 10 minutes: 22, up from 12 for 2023
• Number of matches under 4 minutes: 12, down from 22 for 2023
• Main Events: 6
• Women wrestling 10 matches: 10, up from 6 for 2023
• Weekly wins: 5

Smackdown’s averages were all better than 2023, and unlike RAW they were much more consistent. A big reason for that, I think, is that they came out of the draft with a much deeper roster of women they had confidence to use on TV regularly than they had in some time. From June forward the blue brand had ten women (Bianca, Bayley, Tiffany, Naomi, Chelsea, Piper, Nia, Jade, Mia Yim, and Candace LeRae) who made regular in ring appearances as opposed to only five in 2023 (Charlotte, Bianca, Bayley, Iyo, and Asuka) which allowed them to do more things. And they really got rolling with how they involved all of these women in ongoing storylines and interacting with each other. Comparing pre and post-WrestleMania the match/women/time allotment on Smackdown went up from 1.14/2.7/9:06 to 1.58/4.44/12:54, and even after the Queen of the Ring Tournament they maintained a 1.55/4.42/12:57 clip.  That the numbers spike for the tournament did not vanish immediately afterwards and held for the year says a lot.

Enough can’t be said about how Smackdown has passed RAW this year. Even as their time is still moved around to accommodate not just the ongoing Bloodline Saga but now Cody’s weekly escapades they manage to have an output that was often the same or higher than RAW’s despite having one less hour for most of the year. Statistically speaking this was the best usage of time and talent on Smackdown not just since I started looking at it but going all the way back to the beginning of the brand split. Given that it was the abysmal nature of such on Smackdown in early 2021 that started me on this journey it is truly remarkable that they became the better main roster show and that it was on merit and not by default.

(Note: Michael Cole called the Tiffany Straton/Mia Yim match on Feb 2 the main event on commentary but it came on at 9:30 and was over before 9:45 so I’m not counting it.)

Final Grade: B

If NXT hadn’t set the bar so high on Tuesday nights I’d give them an A, but it’s impossible to do that when you look at what NXT has been doing since 2022. And, as much as Smackdown did improve this year they probably should have gotten more time seeing as how the men’s side on the show often did not have enough interesting things going on to eat up as much time as they did every week this year.

NXT

• Matches per week: 2.57, up from 2.21 for 2023
• Women wrestling per week: 6.91, up from 6.12 for 2023
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 17:32, up from 14:42 for 2023
• Average match time: 6:50, up from 6:38 for 2023
• Number of matches over 10 minutes: 33, up from 23 for 2023
• Number of matches under 4 minutes: 40, down from 48 for 2023
• Main Events: 10
• Women with 10 matches: 16, up from 11 for 2023
• Weekly wins: 28

Early in the year NXT and RAW were running pretty close together, then NXT pulled ahead to hold the lead for the third year in a row. What counts as a stellar effort on most shows is still just an average week for them, both in the ring and in other areas.  NXT remains the standard for women’s wrestling on TV. And this year they’ve done it with minimal gimmicks to goose the numbers. There was no Dusty Cup tag team tournament this year to inflate everything for a month, and even on PLE go home shows where they could have mailed it in they often booked as many as four women’s matches because hey, why not? That’s what I’ve come to expect from them and it’s wonderful. And even when there are a few down weeks they revert right back to form pretty quickly.

Everything good went up from last year be it number of matches, number of women wrestling per week, the number of 10+ minute matches, and the number of women who worked at least 10 matches on TV this year. They also managed to cut down the number of sub 4 minute matches while having more matches overall. This year should be documented in every way possible and studied for the right way to book a women’s division on TV. And it should be noted that they facilitated all of this while creating characters and running storylines and feuds all over the roster. The only negative here is that it’s gonna be impossible to hit this level every year. But for now, we celebrate this achievement.

Grade for 2024: A+

There really isn’t much of anything to harp on.  NXT remains the best run television show for women’s wrestling that isn’t an all women’s show. It got better with the inclusion of TNA Knockouts Champion Jordynn Grace for the summer and fall and then went to an even higher level once Giulia, Stephanie Vaquer, and Zaria came on board.  And things only got better when they moved to the CW, as the number of women wrestling went from 6.67 to 7.57 and the weekly ring time went up from 16:26 to 21:01, thus dispelling any notions that being on network TV would necessitate making the show more male-centric.  NXT from 2022 through 2024 is by far the best that women’s wrestling has been presented on a week to week basis on live television in history.  

Dynamite

• Matches per week: 1.12, up from 1 in 2023
• Women wrestling per week: 2.67, up from 2.38 for 2023
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 9:00, up from 8:17 for 2023
• Number of matches over 10 minutes: 12, up from 8 for 2023
• Number of matches under 4 minutes: 6, up from 4 for 2023
• Average match time: 8:13, the same as 2023
• Main Events: 3, down from 5 for 2023
• Women with 10 matches: 1, down from 4 for 2023
• Weekly wins: 5

For the first six months things were the same as they always were in AEW – one match, usually a singles match, that would come on during the 9:15 quarter and last somewhere between 7 and 10 minutes. Every now and then there would be a tag team match or fatal 4 way match. And that was it. But in mid-July that changed and for seven weeks we had a glimpse of better days.  During that time they averaged 1.57 matches, 3.29 women wrestling and 9:30 of match time.   They even racked up a few weekly wins this year for their work.  Things have since reverted back to what we have come to expect from Dynamite, but hopefully in 2025 that can become a more regular thing.

For the year every average was equal to or better than 2023, and the number of 10+ minute matches went up as well. The only significant drop was that the number of women who wrestled 10 matches or more fell from 4 to 1, that one being Mariah May. So all in all 2024 was an improvement for women wrestling on Dynamite, even more so when you factor in the increased focus on characters and storylines that happened this year. And I know this isn’t a factor in this report but the quality of the women’s wrestling was flat out better than it’s ever been, too.

Grade to Date: C

The full year grade is a C, which is better than years past.  Even though the numbers have flattened since the summer bump the creative commitment to angles and stories has remained and this is still a big improvement so far. Now it’s still not great by any stretch of the imagination but just being able to not type ‘same as it ever as’ for the third year in a row is a relief.

TNA

• Matches per week: 1.47, up from 1.17 for 2023
• Women wrestling per week: 3.73, up from 3.67 for 2023
• Minutes of women wrestling per week: 9:58, down from 10:34 for 2023
• Number of matches over 10 minutes: 3, down from 14 for 2023
• Number of matches under 4 minutes: 18, up from 10 for 2023
• Average match time: 5:30, down from 9:03 for 2023
• Main Events: 3
• Women with 10 matches: 8
• Weekly wins: 4

It was a down year for TNA. The roster turnover at the start of the year was a problem with Trinity, Mickie James and Deonna Purazzo all moving on, leaving them with a dearth of contenders for the Knockouts Title.  Jordynn Grace did an admirable job anchoring the division, and the working agreement with NXT provided a few challengers for her along the way, but 2024 was very a much a smoke and mirror job while they kept Masha Slamavich away from Grace until Bound for Glory. The talent drain can be seen in the numbers. The matches per week and women wrestling per week did tick up but the total ring time and average match time were down as were the number of main events. The number of sub 4 minute matches almost doubled while the number of 10+ minute matches were down by almost 80 percent from 2023.

Grade for 2024: C–

They get a gentleman’s C here because of the effort they put in with a decimated roster. But overall it was a down year for TNA. Jordynn Grace deserves an award for how she led the roster this year.

Conclusions

2024 was been better than 2023, which looks worse and worse in hindsight with time. For the year the number of matches were up across the board, number of women wrestling were up from or even with last year on every show, and ring time was up on four out of five shows. As for rankings, here’s how I have it:

1. NXT
2. Smackdown
3. RAW (3hrs)
4. Dynamite
5. TNA

NXT finished firmly in first place once again, and cleared the field for a third year in a row. For the first time ever I put Smackdown ahead of RAW, on the strength of their efficiency and consistency post-WrestleMania. RAW has fell to third because once you look past the surface the inconsistencies over the course of the year are glaring, and didn’t go away when they went to two hours.

Dynamite moved out of last place for the first time, for two reasons. One is that the talent drain on TNA has both dragged down the match times and the significance of what they’re putting on TV right now, and the other is that AEW has flat out greatly improved the way that they present women’s wrestling on TV. They have been consistently presenting their women’s championships in a more important light than anyone other than NXT most of the year and their title chases look an feel a lot more important to their shows than ever.

All in all 2024 was a major rebound from a 2023. One big takeaway from this year should that having more TV ready talent matters. Smackdown post-draft, NXT in the last quarter, and AEW all year have shown what having a deeper roster of TV ready in ring workers and characters means to women’s wrestling on TV, while TNA and RAW showed how much losing them can send you in the other direction.

As for questions in 2025, here’s what I got:

1. Will RAW make better usage of it’s time and roster as they go back to 3 hours and some big names (Becky, Asuka, Alexa Bliss maybe) return?
2. Will Smackdown capitalize on the move to three hours by giving their women more time?
3. How will NXT be affected by the inevitable roster changes that come post WrestleMania?
4. Will Dynamite continue to build on what they added this year?
5. Will TNA be able to rebound as it’s roster continues to turn over, and will they continue to partner with NXT?